Health Plus: HUCs keep hospital running

It takes a lot more than doctors, nurses and patients to keep a hospital functioning.

In Health Plus, meet two women who keep things running smoothly by being the ultimate multi-taskers:

If you think of a hospital as a stage production, health unit coordinators are the ultimate supporting cast.

"The HUC is actually the go-to person for every department," said Robyn Leet, a HUC specialist.

"HUCs" as they're called for short are point people between doctors, nurses, patients and their families.

"You'll have a family member coming up upset that the doctor hasn't been there, the nurse hasn't been in there. Then you've got nurses, 'Hey, can you order this?' Doctors, 'Hey, I need this.' You just have to be able to handle it and be able to get it done," said Lindsy Huebner, a HUC.

At Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo some sixty employees fill this role that is necessary to keep the hospital running 24-7.

They do everything from prepare documents to update family members.

"You have to do it with a smile. Everything going on and you still have to do it with a smile 'cause we're the firs person that they see," said Robyn.

Stressful? yes.

But exciting for people like Robyn and Lindsy who enjoy the challenge.

"Someone that can multi-task. At our job you have to be willing to multi-task, if you can't then no," said Lindsy.

"You have to love a hundred things going on at the same time, otherwise you can get very stressed out and it's not for everybody but I happen to like that," said Robyn.

To become a HUC, it takes six months to one year of training post high school.